Zone Construction

This section applies to initial zone construction, and not to the cloning of
existing zones.

After you have configured a non-global zone, you should verify that the zone
can be installed safely on your system's configuration. You can then install the zone.
The files needed for the zone's root file system are installed by
the system under the zone's root path.

The method used to initially install packages in a Solaris installation is also
the method used to populate a non-global zone.

The global zone must contain all the data necessary to populate a
non-global zone. Populating a zone includes creating directories, copying files, and providing configuration information.

Only the information or data that was created in the global zone
from packages is used to populate the zone from the global zone. For
more information, see the pkgparam(1) and pkginfo(4) man pages.

Data from the following are not referenced or copied when a zone
is installed:

Non-installed packages

Patches

Data on CDs and DVDs

Network installation images

Any prototype or other instance of a zone

In addition, the following types of information, if present in the global zone,
are not copied into a zone that is being installed:

New or changed users in the /etc/passwd file

New or changed groups in the /etc/group file

Configurations for networking services such as DHCP address assignment

Customizations for networking services such as UUCP or sendmail

Configurations for network services such as naming services

New or changed crontab, printer, and mail files

System log, message, and accounting files

If Solaris auditing is used, modifications to auditing files copied from the global
zone might be required. For more information, see Using Solaris Auditing in Zones.

The following features cannot be configured in a non-global zone:

Solaris Live UpgradeTM boot environments

Solaris Volume Manager metadevices

DHCP address assignment in a shared-IP zone

SSL proxy server

The resources specified in the configuration file are added when the zone transitions
from installed to ready. A unique zone ID is assigned by the system.
File systems are mounted, network interfaces are set up, and devices are configured.
Transitioning into the ready state prepares the virtual platform to begin running user
processes. In the ready state, the zsched and zoneadmd processes are started
to manage the virtual platform.

zsched, a system scheduling process similar to sched, is used to track kernel resources associated with the zone.

zoneadmd is the zones administration daemon.

A zone in the ready state does not have any user processes
executing in it. The primary difference between a ready zone and a running
zone is that at least one process is executing in a running zone.
See the init(1M) man page for more information.